Victor Faur, from Arad in western Romania, is accused by authorities in the United States of causing NASA damages amounting to 1.3 million dollars (almost 1 million euros).

The US alerted Romanian police in July to the fact that the security of NASA's servers had been breached by an unknown person in Romania.

A joint investigation by the country's police and the FBI led to the arrest of Faur, who police said had previously hacked into the computer systems of several US universities and government agencies.

Faur has said in a television interview that he wanted "to prove that many computers are vulnerable to IT attacks" and reassured the public that he did not try to "obtain profitable material".

"I did not modify or delete any files, nor destroy communication systems," he said.

The indictment comes two weeks after FBI director Robert S. Mueller visited Bucharest to discuss the fight against hi-tech crime.

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